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#1 2009-03-27 11:06:43

Oikolukija
Member
From: London
Registered: 2008-01-16
Posts: 5

'fiercesome' for 'fearsome'

Some 14 kGh for this. Skipping past the first few Google pages, we see they’re mainly bona fide uses, including in books:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%2Bfie … t=140&sa=N

In fact, there are so many hits in Google Books, including some nineteenth-century ones, that I think it should be recognized as a variant. Not in the OED now though.

[Edited later: Apologies; I thought I always searched before submitting.]

Last edited by Oikolukija (2009-04-09 04:56:24)

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#2 2009-03-27 12:23:34

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

Re: 'fiercesome' for 'fearsome'

This is a good one that’s been suggested a few times; here’s a link to the earlier instances: http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/forum/view … hp?id=2704

Back in 2005, Ken reported 5000+ hits. Now we’re at almost three times that. I’m not sure what that means, but this is clearly widespread in many registers.

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#3 2009-03-27 16:01:07

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2714
Website

Re: 'fiercesome' for 'fearsome'

I thought it was a sort of poetic near synonym for fearsome, never mistook for that word. I’m rather surprised it’s not in the OED.


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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